Canaries in the CoalmineIt was one of the defining symbols of the industrial era and the tenuous nature of working life – the bird in the cage whose expiration was a miner’s early warning that things were not OK.

F E A T U R E S

Interview: Head OnJohn Buchanan has been warning that WorkChoices would be a car crash. Now he surveys the damage.

Canberra Confidential, Andrews on the Run

Embattled Coalition MPs have been armed with a “confidential document” to help counter public disquiet over workplace rorts.

WorkChoices Minister, Kevin Andrews, furnished worried colleagues with the five-page "party line" in a week that saw another round of horror headlines about workplace deaths, wage cuts and unjustified dismissals.

Andrews is apparently concerned that Australians are learning about these incidents through the media.

In an interview with Melbourne's Herald Sun, he suggested they should be reported to his Office of Workplace Services, instead.

Unions NSW official, Alison Peters, has ridiculed Andrews' defence.

She described it as a "smokescreen" to try to deflect attention from legislation that has been revealed as a rorters-charter.

"Kevin Andrews has a big problem and that problem is the truth," she said.

"This government argued that all employers weren't bad and we agreed with that.

"Our problem is that some employers are bad, they do want to slash earnings, do away with family friendly entitlements, sack people unjustly and operate unsafely.

"His government has given those employers the green light.

"We are not judging the Office of Workplace Services, at all. What we, and other Australians, are judging is the unbalanced legislation it is required to work under.

"For example, it doesn't have the power to order reinstatement when workers are unfairly sacked, as the Industrial Relations Commission, used to be able to do.

"It is nonsense to pretend otherwise, especially when that pretence comes from the person who made the changes. "

Peters said the recent spate of workplace deaths came against a background of a sustained Andrews campaign to undermine state occupational health and safety authorities, and threats to deny moieties to unions that mounted successful prosecutions.

Peters said, to her knowledge, the Office of Workplace Services had no mandate to enforce health and safety laws.